Suicide Silence - The Black Crown

It might still be extreme(ish), but Suicide Silence’s ‘The Black Crown’ has predominantly done away with deathcore monotony. Scene-tainted blastbeats and breakneck discordant technicality aren’t lacking on the five-piece’s third LP, but nor are they over-prescribed. In fact, to the group’s merit, there’s very little outright and over-used death metal fury, instead it’s partially replaced by modern metal ambiguities and churning, lengthy breaks. Contrary to some conventional thinking, the album plays its strongest trump card when the Californian group embrace a nu metal base. Chunky themes in ‘Human Violence’ and ‘Fuck Everything’, along with a surprise vocal cameo from one Jonathan Davis of Korn on ‘Witness The Addiction’, confirm the valuable breadth of the group’s backwards look. The djent thuds that open the latter serve unavoidable notice of Suicide Silence’s expanding repertoire. However, ‘The Black Crown’ begins to limp where 09’s ‘No Time To Bleed’ leapt. While the predecessor sought leftfield sidesteps (via unconventional arrangements and rhythms), here there are fewer moments of stimulating, head-turning inspiration. Although there are storming successes amongst the album’s 11 tracks (such as ‘Slaves To Substance’ and ‘You Only Live Once’) ‘The Black Crown’ falls a fraction shy of the pack-shedding statement it needs to be.